MINT< MINT< MINT

MINT< MINT< MINT

Tue Oct 09, 2012 8:29 am

I still have so much mint in my garden and by gosh, I did everything I could with it. Now what, winter is coming, days are getting chilly. So, can I freeze mint, after I plugged it and washed it? Anybody knows?

You can freeze mint. Fill ice cube tray slots half way with clean mint leaves and then fill with water and freeze. Once frozen solid, pop the mint cubes out and store them in a zip-lock. Or just spread clean leaves out on a baking sheet. Put the baking sheet in freezer until the leaves are frozen and then store the frozen leaves in a zip-lock.

The process is the same for making any herbal jelly. I have used this with mint, lavender, green or purple basil. Just make an infusion of the herb, then strain the leaves out and add sugar and pectin to the infusion and boil briefly. Here's one recipe:

Do not over process in the canning stage, you can break the pectin back down again. Still not a disaster, you just end up with syrup instead of jelly.

Incidentally, the green basil jelly benefits from a little food coloring as they did here, to make it look appealing. But the purple basil jelly comes out a delightful pink color all on its own, without any food coloring.

I haven't tried them yet, but I have read about other herb jellies - sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, lemon balm...

MORE MINT

Fri Oct 26, 2012 3:44 am

I thought I plugged all my mint, and by gosh I have more mint growing. Not only is it the end of October, but we had rain, snow-rain,frost and yesterday 22 degree Celsius. Now, you think the mint is still good to plug? I rubbed a leave and it still smells great.Could probably fill 2 -3 large zip-loc bags with it.What do you think. By the way, hello and have a great weekend!

''On your way through life don't worry if you stumble now and then. Only worms can't fall down.'' Jean Pare